If Legislators Do The Right Thing, State Will Limit `Soft Money' Gifts

April 19, 1998

Florida made some progress Monday in preparing to confront a vital but previously neglected element of political campaign finance reform - the need to add a tighter limit on "soft money" contributions. That day, the idea won a long-overdue vote of confidence from a Florida Senate committee.

In political jargon, soft money refers to any campaign contributions made indirectly to help a candidate win election. In some cases, contributors donate the money to the candidate's state or county political party, which then funnels the money to the candidate. In other cases, individual contributors buy political ads or otherwise spend the money on behalf of the candidate themselves.

The law already forbids parties from accepting money designated for a specific candidate, but often there is an unspoken "understanding" of where the donor wants the money to go.

Florida law imposes a low $500 limit on how much an individual, organization or political action committee can donate directly to a candidate, but soft money is much more loosely regulated. Anyone can make unlimited cash contributions of $50,000 a year to a political party, and a party can give up to $50,000 yearly to a candidate. A party can also spend unlimited amounts to pay for the candidate's phone calls, staff, polling and consultants. In recent years, soft money contributions have come to dominate many political campaigns, including those of Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeb Bush and Democrat Buddy MacKay.

The bill (SB 1440) imposes much lower limits, restricting individual contributions of cash or in-kind services to a political party and from a party to a candidate to only $5,000 per year. It was filed by Sen. Walter "Skip" Campbell, D-Tamarac, who warned colleagues that political spending has gotten out of control and that the infusion of soft money threatens to corrupt political campaigning. It was approved Monday by the Executive Business, Ethics and Elections Committee.

Since the bill would sharply restrict incumbent politicians' ability to raise money and win re-election, it's likely to run into a wall of opposition. But if lawmakers do the right thing, they will approve it as a vital reform measure to reduce the influence of special-interest money on political races and restore some truth in campaign financing.